Letters from the Lighthouse: 'THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION' Guardian

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as always emerges from solitude by “reluctantly…laying hold of some…sound, some sight.” She looks at the Lighthouse light and, still thinking how it is “so much her, yet so little her” and... A beautifully written story about bravery, compassion, understanding, and having the strength to fight for what you believe in. ~ Shelley Fallows A heart catching tale about the Second World War and what it would have been like for those poor poor evacuees On the cover of one of Carroll’s books, she is proclaimed as the Queen of historical fiction. I now understand why. Emma Carroll pulls on the reader’s heartstrings. She made me feel bad for Olive, but not only for her, for all people and families that suffered throughout WWII. The author used such powerful vocabulary, it felt like I was there. Not only is this a great book, it spreads a message. It shows you that just because you have a different religion, or you think differently, doesn’t mean you’re good or bad.’

I felt transported into World War II: the rushing when there was an air-raid siren, why some children wanted to be evacuated and why some children did not, living with rationing and experiencing different lifestyles once evacuated.A dazzling tale of wild hope, lingering grief, admirable self-sufficiency, and intergenerational adoration.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Breaking down your comprehensions into questions is a great strategy to use when pinpointing areas for development with the children in your Year 5 / Year 6 class. The main protagonists are Olive and Cliff, a brother and sister evacuated from London to a small fishing village in Devon during WW II. Their father has been killed, their mother appears to be sinking under her grief and their older sister has gone missing after a bombing raid. The author conveys the relationship between these two younger siblings beautifully; Olive's love and care for her little brother is palpable.

The book does not feature heavy setting descriptions. Instead, Emma Carroll increases her use of descriptive language at key points, heightening the impact on the reader. An example of this comes early in the book, when an air raid hits London. Her sudden escalation of setting at that particular moment, paints a vivid, gritty picture of life in London during WWII, making the overall scene resonate in a much deeper, more meaningful way. Your Year 5 / Year 6 children will look at identifying similes and improving sentences by creating similes based on the information given.I really liked this book because it was full of mysteries. But the only thing I didn't like about it was that when all the exciting bits ended there wasn't much happening for 3 or 4 paragraphs. My favourite character was Sukie because she really wants to help with this plan to save people, who live in other countries where the war is really bad. The other characters who are in the book are: Olive, Cliff, Ephraim, Pixie (the dog),Mum and Gloria. I thought the book showed the history of the war very well but I think it is more suitable for older children because as we know the war was a difficult time and a lot of people died. This showed me what it was like in the war. My favourite part was when they found a suitcase from one of the people that her sister was trying to save. The book was quite grabbing for me and I would definitely recommend this book to other people who like history like me. For this guided reading task you will need to read chapter 16 – Hitler Will Send No Warning from Letters from the Lighthouse with your Year 5 / Year 6 class. Your KS2 children will have the opportunity to punctuate the text using colons and also identify when a colon has been used accurately. February, 1941. After months of air raid bombings in London, Olive and Cliff are evacuated to the Devon coast for their safety. Before they leave, their sister, Sukie, goes missing during an air raid, and Olive is determined to figure out what happened to her. While in Devon, Olive begins to unravel the mystery and finds out that her sister is more connected to Devon than she realized.

Emma really described the characters, their personalities and brought them to life. I extremely liked Olive because she reminded me of a friend from Cornwall (caring). I can really imagine living in the war from reading this book as the description can draw a picture in my mind. When they first arrived, they came quietly and stealthily as if they tip-toed into the world when we were all looking the other way. This resource is aimed at UKS2 touches on the sequence of events, character quotes, giving explanations from the perspective of the officer, adverbials of time, recounts and more… In this book, there were not a lot of illustrations but the ones there were, were thorough and detailed to help visualise the story. This resource accompanies the video clip above and it introduces your class to the largest Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, located in southern Poland.I enjoyed reading this book. I found the characters really interesting and there were some really exciting twists and turns but at times I found the plot a little bit confusing! I'm not sure if the history in the book was realistic as I think that Britain did allow refugees to come into the country in the second world war. I am already very interested in WW2. I would like to read more books by Emma Carrol and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. Desperate to be helpful, Olive becomes his post-girl, carrying secret messages (as she likes to think of the letters) to the villagers. But Olive has a secret of her own. Her older sister Sukie went missing in an air raid, and she's desperate to discover what happened to her. And then she finds a strange coded note which seems to link Sukie to Devon, and to something dark and impossibly dangerous. Emma Carroll clearly put a lot of research into writing Letters from the Lighthouse. It lends itself very well to teaching a WWII topic to a class, as the prolific use of wartime terminology and speech does a fantastic job of educating the reader on specific aspects of the war. I read through the book beforehand and then timed my teaching to coincide with the book so that my children were able to better visualise what I was teaching them. Class Comments There’s so many great Children’s historical fiction available at the minute and Carroll continues that trend.

When Olive and her little brother Cliff are taken to the cinema as a treat by their older sister Sukie they find themselves in the midst of an air-raid, and Sukie, last seen by Olive talking to a young man, has vanished. Mi se părea că oamenii erau mult mai greu de descifrat decât codurile. Și totuși, nu conta de unde veneam, care era limba noastră, naționalitatea sau religia, atâta timp cât priveam cu toții spre lumină.”

LoveReading4Kids Says

I would personally recommend this story a 4 out of 5. The illustrations just let me feel a bit disappointed but overall the plot was enthralling with an original storyline. Your Ks2 class will then use this information to answer the comprehension questions based on: retrieval, inference and vocabulary.